By the time Kevin and Pete made it to the dining area of the Clan Hall, everyone was there waiting for them, "Hey guys, I think we may have a problem," Pete started the conversation rolling.
"What he means is that Aaron ended up eating three of those donuts this morning instead of breakfast, because he missed out eating with us due to having to be at the meetings and he washed them down with one of those energy drinks, he also ran a scan on himself and he was frowning when he read it," Kevin told them, worried about the person who did so much for them.
Spotting Friedrich strolling their way, Pete had a thought, something he picked up from Aaron this morning did not make sense at the time, but it did now, "Guys, I think the problem is that Aaron has been picking up a lot of the slack from other people.FRIEDRICH COME HERE A MINUTE."
Changing direction, Friedrich noticed one thing besides the Clan being all together, none of them looked happy, "Good morning, Young Sir's, what can I do for you this morning?"
"You can hand me Brialey's balls on a stick, so I can roast them, for one," Tim said, as he walked to stand next to Pete and Kevin, not very happy, "Where is he, by the way? He's certainly not doing what he was asked to do, leaving Aaron to pick up the slack when he is already doing too much as it is."
Taking a step back and wincing, Friedrich had to think when the last time he had even seen Brialey, "Last I heard, he had gone to Japan to arrange for the extraction of the Graves boy's father, why?"
"So, instead of informing Adam and the Twins what was happening like he had been asked, he just took off to go do the rescue, leaving Aaron to deal with it, and take more time out of his way too busy schedule, to comfort and reassure a set of boys that should have been the priority, not the father who cannot be rescued until tomorrow night," Tim told him vehemently, as he glared at the man.
Holding up a hand as to ward of a blow, Friedrich stepped back at the intensity in Tim's gaze, "Are you sure he knew he had to inform the boys of the rescue, I remember him typing up the report and sending it off, before going to get ready for the extraction."
Tim looked at him before deflating slightly, but only slightly, "Are you going to tell me that this whole thing of Aaron not getting to eat and rushing around putting out minor problems is because he did not check his email, or link his P.A.D.D. to his terminal?"
Relaxing, Friedrich knew where the breakdown in communications happened now, and making no excuses for it, "I think I see, I'm not sure most of us have checked out all the features in the terminal, I know I'm not used to checking email on more than a daily basis, Brialey, most likely has not done anything more than log into the terminal to set up his account, so he can get paid."
"Speaking of P.A.D.D.'s where's yours, you're head of our security, and if something were to happen that was not yet important enough to path a report to you directly, you would not find out about it until you did decide to check you emails?" Kevin pointed to his bare leg and then theirs, "the P.A.D.D. is more than a fancy little data storage unit, if you link it to your terminal, it can act as so much more, including an alert system."
"I think we need to hold a class for all new people, so they can learn how to use all of our resources they are being given, how many more Brialey's are out there just waiting to happen because someone did not check an email," Pete looked to Kevin and then Tim.
Friedrich thought about it as he looked at each of the teens staring at him, each and every one of them had a Velcro pouch strapped to their leg along with their communicator in their ear, sighing, he knew his own naked body was missing those items and one of them was crucial. "Point very well taken, even I have some new habits to get used to, it seems," he tilted his head to the side and pointed to his bare ear, "where do I pick up one of the Velcro pouches? And can one of you show me how to link my P.A.D.D. into the terminal?"
"I'll be fine really guys, the scan I did this morning showed me something I had not considered, even with eating regularly, I still was not putting on the weight like I should have been, I think the problem is we need to add snacks, something like a high calorie fruit drink or something to our daily routine." Aaron pathed to all of them, smiling as he felt their surprise that he was listening in, "Pete, you pathed a message to the entire Clan did you not think I would be included in your mind call," he let his laughter flow through the link, "truly though, if I scanned any of you that are putting in a good day's work using all your gifts, I would find the same thing, we need to change our eating habits."
"I love you all, and nothing makes me know it more than the show of concern you have for my health. And Pete, you're right, all the new Alteran's need to have a crash course in utilizing our technology to the fullest, get with Joe and Chris and have them put all the new guys under their command through a course. Kevin, tweak the terminal so that every new person has to check off tasks as being completed before they can have access to their accounts and Internet." Aaron then pathed Pete, Kevin and Tim privately," Don't be so hard on people for things slipping through the cracks, in six months time, then it will be time to scream and yell, but even we are still in the learning curve of finding the problems that need to be addressed, we'll talk more about this when I get back, I'm about to enter the family dining room where everyone is waiting for us."
They all felt Aaron turning his attention elsewhere, so while Kenny dragged Friedrich back to his rooms to show him how to link things with his P.A.D.D. and grab his communicator, the rest discussed how they could make sure any new Alteran's did not fall through the cracks.
Smiling, Aaron followed Richard into the family dining room and nodded his hello to Victoria and a few others he recognized, sitting in the chair reserved for him, and pushing Richard to the empty one between the queen and her husband, Aaron looked around at the openly curious and few hostile stares, catching the surface thoughts from the two hostile stares, he had to wonder if Victoria would be upset if he killed her third born and his wife.
The Duke looked at Aaron and smiled, before turning to his grandson, "Edward, now that his Majesty is here, and as you know he is a trained physician, I would like an answer to my question from yesterday, if you had to prosecute my son and the father of my grandson, what would the charges be?"
Edward sighed as he looked at his grandmother and back to Aaron who pulled his scanner from his pocket and placed it in front of him on the table, he held off long enough, he supposed, and feeling his father place a comforting hand on his thigh, he nodded before glaring at the person they were talking about. "If I was listing charges against the Earl, they would have to include, neglect, endangerment and abandonment," as he said each, the Earl glared, while his wife, the Countess, paled and his grandfather flinched before getting angry at the last charges. "A very good prosecutor could make a case for abandonment with special circumstances, and even attempted premeditated murder."
Victoria and Alfred had pulled Richard into a shared hug, as Edward read each charge, trying to give as much comfort as possible; arms touching each other, Alfred could tell his wife was furious.
"Why you jumped up little." a perfectly performed right cross by his eldest brother shut him up, and as he righted himself in his chair, Aaron studied him for a moment, "If we were in my court, and you were standing in judgment in front of the King's Bench, each and every charge laid out by Edward would be verified by telepathic mind probe. And seeing how pale and frightened you just became, I don't even need to dip into your mind to see the truth."
Leaving his hard gaze a moment longer on the third son, Aaron wiped the contempt off his face and turned to look at Victoria and Richard, "Just so you know Victoria, he has not asked and I have not offered, though right now, I am so sorely tempted."
Victoria nodded her understanding while Richard looked at him confused, "As of an hour ago, I filed the letters of marquee and also the one for the one hundred year lease of Elswick naval base to the Alteran government, seeing that parliament and the house of lords are louts, they should find out about it at the same time the media broadcasts it with the evening news. The crown magistrate is also drafting a letter that will be sent round after close of the day to all magistrates and law enforcement offices, with a long list of laws being abolished as the rollback commences at midnight tonight."
Sighing, Aaron looked at Edward and Andrew, "Which means the two of you, along with your grandmother, but more so you Edward, need to be seen out and about in the public eye, seen as leading the change. With your grandmother's permission, I think for the next little while, the three of you need to be spending the weekend, stating Friday night with me, studying." Catching Victoria's nod of agreement, he turned to Edward's father, "How did it go with handing over the signed contract to the milk plant and the farmers' group?"
James smiled, "It was a masterpiece, by the time we had left, someone had called the media and I'm sure the Prime Minister has a bad case of indigestion right now, they're calling Edward the leader for the future, in the media."
Smirking at Edward, who all of a sudden became shy and embarrassed, "Good, I have Edward's next homework assignment all picked out then," hearing some quiet snickering from Andrew, Aaron grinned, "don't feel left out, Andrew, I have your assignment as well."
Seeing the amused looks on their father's face he smiled when Andrew sat up, "Dang, Summer Hol's and we still have homework," getting a sly smile on his face, as he looked at Richard, he thought he would help out his cousin, "What about Richard? After all, he needs to learn to lead."
Laughing, Aaron leaned back in his chair, "Good try, I'll give you that, Andrew, but Richard already got his homework assignment." Aaron glanced out of the corner of his eye to see Richard look confused before remembering the trip he needed to plan and smiling.
Getting some of his courage back, Harold, Richards father blustered, "Yes, well I don't know where you get off telling my son what he can and can't do, you, after all are not his teacher and once my mother comes to her senses."
SLAM.the loud sound of a hand hitting the table stopped all conversation.
"As I told you last night, Harold, you no longer have a say in your son's life, in fact, as soon as I leave the room this morning, I will formally draft the papers to have you removed from the family, James will help you and your wife find a nice out of the way place to retire to, and when Edward assumes the throne in five years, on his twenty first birthday, you will no longer be an Earl," Victoria shocked them all, by publicly announcing her retirement, "the media is not to know about this until six months before it will happen."
Aaron was not sure which statement shocked them more, the fact that she was disowning one of her own sons, or that she planned to retire in five years, catching a stray thought of near homicidal rage directed at Richard, Aaron acted by knocking Harold out. Standing up, as he slumped over the table, "I apologize, Victoria, Alfred, but his rage right then all he could think about was killing his son, and possibly anyone else that stood up for him. Don't worry, I only knocked him out, but I think I want one of my mind healers to take a look at him if you don't mind, such a killing age I felt from him before knocking him out."
Catching the surface thoughts from Richard's mother, Aaron shook his head, "You madam, are quite the little gold digger, aren't you, short minded as well, it seems.no matter, your schemes will not get off the ground; you will join your husband in his fate of exile."
"I have the perfect place in mind mother, if you'll let me handle it for you," James offered, as he watched Aaron stalk around the room as if in thought.
Victoria nodded her agreement to both, "Thank you, James.Aaron, would it be possible for your mind healers to make it so the Earl and Countess cannot take action against us, even verbally?"
"Very possible, Victoria," Aaron continued his scanning of the room for listening devices as Thomas watched him carefully, trying to decide what he was doing.
Stopping by the wall switch, after making a complete circuit of the room, Aaron frowned at the screen of his scanner, making a come here motion towards Thomas, he put a finger to his mouth and went back to the table, looking for a knife he could use. Grabbing a butter knife off the table, he went back to the light switch and removed the screw as everyone watched him spellbound, until he pulled out the listening device. Holding the bug in his hand, he glanced at the table briefly before quickly walking to the tea pot and lifting the lid, he dropped the listening device into the hot liquid.
"All right, the room is clean now," Aaron sighed, "Several things you all need to know and understand, it came to my attention yesterday, after seeing the Prime Minister, he is planning on assassinating all of you, and he wants an end to the present monarchy, so he can replace it, with him as prime minister for life."
Looking at Victoria, he sat back down and did not try to smile, "Unfortunately, he, along with some others will suffer a massive failing of health tomorrow, none will survive intact, either mentally or physically," Aaron looked at Victoria, and then Edward, "Not the way I wanted to start an alliance, by killing off members of your government, but the only way to keep you alive is for them to have an accident as the Prime Minister planned to take your grandsons out when they were most exposed, that means with members of my Clan and they were also expendable in his mind,"
"All because I signed the letters of Marquee, I never gave a thought that my family would be so placed in danger.wait you said yesterday, he would not have known about the letter then, as nothing was said until last night in my office, which means the whole palace is bugged.how long has he been planning this?" Victoria was stunned at the revelations.
"From what I found in his mind during the brief glimpse I had of it, he has been planning this for years and he would have started planning the accidents of.." Aaron stopped, after saying accident could it be possible that the explosion was not only a hate crime, but the first of the accidents designed to destroy the crown, he was thinking it might be best to take a glimpse through the man's mind, instead of killing him outright.
Thomas, head of security for the princes, was the second to put it together, "You think he already started his accidents with Richard, don't you?"
Staring at Thomas, Aaron decided to be candid, "It is a possibility; the man would be thrilled combining the eradication of gays with the death of a royal would be orgasmic to him." Changing the subject slightly, "For the most part, I expect if you keep aware over the next couple of weeks, and take care, you will be alright, by tomorrow night I expect Elswick will be secure and with the princes safely on base visiting my Clan as they plan their trips sightseeing and such you won't be seen as hiding, plus my security teams all have telepaths in them so your grandsons will be safe."
"And with you in residence for the weekend it would not be out of character for the royal family to be in residence at Elswick either, leaving palace security and if you allow a few of your boys to handle the matter thoroughly before Monday rolls around," Thomas finished for him and smiled when Aaron nodded his head in agreement.
"Enough morbid discussions," Aaron announced as he looked over at Edward, "now future king and leader of your people, time to get your homework out of the way, in your own words tell me what would a ruler have done when you sat down for lunch and people started to ask questions of all of you and the proposed open contract for dairy products with Altare and what would a leader do?"
James was fascinated as he heard the question and was eager to hear Edward's reasoning to the question.
Edward stared at his brother for a moment before thinking about his answer, "well I mean it sounds pretty simple, so I must be missing something somewhere, but when the plant manager overheard us talking and the people in the pub started asking questions I suppose a ruler would have told them who to get in touch with, even if it was Mark back on Altare, a leader would not have handed the talks off to anyone else and even though I had no clue what they were talking about most of the time, I listened as they bounced ideas off of me and used what I knew of you and your Clan to steer them in the right direction. I had the added advantage of having Pete and Tim with me to jump in when the questions got too difficult ." sighing he felt like he was failing but went ahead anyway. "My answer is that a ruler would have handed the whole situation off to someone else and a leader would have done what we did and handled it."
Aaron listened and not giving anything away, skimmed Edward's surface thoughts as he answered the question, "It really is that simple Edward, a ruler would not want to be bothered beyond letting people know who to go to and a leader would jump in and as you put it handle it." Aaron smiled at Edward and felt his relief, pointing his finger at him to punctuate his words, "as far as that pub full of people are concerned you brought them the contract.you made it possible.you showed you cared enough about them to go out of your way to do this for them, not some flunky, or some unknown diplomat or buyer.you their future King one day did this for THEM."
Motioning for Richard to join Edward and his brother across from him, "Being a leader means you wear many hats, master many things. But only as far as you need to too truly understand the situation so you make the right choices, each of the exorcizes I will give you will expand on the simple principle that a leader leads and he does not hand things over to someone else unless he assigns the person from the beginning to handle it, not mid stream or even after first contact."
"Your next homework assignment will build on the milk contract and expose you to more people," Aaron pulled a chip out of his pocket and pushed it across the table and noticed something, neither Andrew nor Edward had their P.A.D.D. with them. "New rule, as I will be bringing over a terminal tomorrow, look at Richard, I imagine the only reason he has his P.A.D.D. and communicator with him is because he dressed at the same time my Clan did, so he followed along with what they did, from now on, I do NOT want to ever catch you or have my secret guards that are watching you report back to me that you do not have both your communicator and P.A.D.D. with you at all times. The first thing you do in the morning before you even put the first piece of clothing on should be to put your communicator on and then place your P.A.D.D. with your clothes you are changing into."
Finished chastising the two teens, he smiled gently so they knew while he was serious, he was not mad, "That chip has the future plans of what Elswick will look like once we finish along with a list of all the trades that will be needed to make it a reality, right now, the only work being done that I know about is the dredging of the channel. The plans, which if I was the student, I would make sure to refer back to them for future homework assignments, "Aaron grinned at all three of them and nodded when Andrew gulped, "I have already broken the project down into sections and included timetables."
Edward, at a loss knowing it would be a ten minute round trip to get his P.A.D.D. turned to his cousin, "Richard can I borrow your P.A.D.D. until I get back to my room and get properly dressed."
Smiling and nodding, Richard pulled his P.A.D.D. out of the Velcro pouch he had placed on the outside of his trousers and handed it over.
Opening the small plastic case, Edward pulled the small red chip out and inserted it into the slot, activated the P.A.D.D. and selected the view of the artist's rendering of what the embassy and hospital would look like; after everyone had a look, he selected phase one, skimmed through the timetables and looked up when Aaron's voice interrupted his musings.
"Only phase one is complete; I did that as a template for you to use to fill out phase two and three, so on to your homework, which is due by Sunday, though if you ask for help making contacts which I don't mind, though you will not hand it off to others to do, what you need to do is negotiate on your people's behalf for the contracts to do the work." Aaron smiled, knowing he confused him, "Think of it this way, I came to you with plans of what the embassy and hospital will look like, and you know you have people that can do the work. So you need to be in the mindset that you are negotiating with me to let your country build this, the first step is to round up the locals that can do this type of work and then meet with them, give them partial plans or a work outline and tell them you are negotiating with me so that you can bring jobs and money to the area."
Flipping back to phase one, Edward scrolled to the top of the list, "So the first step is the demolition of the list of buildings nearest the docks, and at the same time, you have listed details of the refitting of the old hospital and. wait, you have five different projects going on at the same time and all of them needing to be done in three weeks' time frame, is that even possible?"
"Sending all this to a landfill seems wasteful," Andrew pointed to the photos of the current buildings to be torn down; most were metal barn type structures.
"I expect it would take less than a day to tear them down and start hauling them out, but you gave me three weeks, but what do we do with them once they are dismantled? Nothing in your drawings looked like you used them." Edward was thinking out loud.
Richard looked over at the P.A.D.D. and the picture of the buildings, "They look like big barns to me."
Getting a thought about what he could do with the buildings, Edward looked at Aaron, "This does not say anything about the removed items in here, but are you planning on re-using anything that you list as being demolished?"
Aaron smiled and sat back in the chair amused at where Edward's thoughts were going, "No, anything listed as remove or demolished will not be used again."
James was slightly confused as he did not see how this project could build leadership abilities in his son and said so, "How does this have anything to do with being taught how to be a leader?"
Chuckling, Aaron saw that all of the adults had no clue either, "Simple really, think baby steps. The first step was learning how to listen and relate while negotiating a contract, simple and pretty straight forward, the next step is acting as a general contractor in a way for a small project, learning to juggle a group of different groups and companies, all the time keeping a single goal in mind, after all, a general contractor is nothing more than the leader of his group of contractors. Each step or phase is designed to teach how to juggle and lead the different groups under him to accomplish the finished goal."
Edward, who had been ignoring the adults talking with Aaron looked up at the break in conversation and asked something totally off topic, "Where do you get all your fruits and things like metals and such?"
Dipping into Edwards surface thoughts, Aaron was surprised to see a single minded eagerness and not really the thoughts behind it, as he was not paying attention, "Well, we grow almost all of our own food as you know, and for the rest we have deep sea mining platforms and foundries, why?"
"But aren't all your fruits and the things you grow dependant on being tropical? You can't for instance grow apples or grapes and peaches, right?" Edward asked, eager to see if his thought was possible.
"I do like nectarines ." Aaron smiled, "but they need the cold to be able to set fruit each year, and as you said, they are not tropical so they are a rare treat."
"Good, then I have a plan of what to do with these buildings," Edward started to get up and before he forgot, he turned off Richard's P.A.D.D., pulled his chip and handed the P.A.D.D. back to Richard, "Thanks Richard, I need to get a move on, I need to get on the internet and do some research before I can get started, I'll see you all at lunch."
Aaron was amused as he finally got a string of thoughts out of Edward's mind that put the pieces together for him, it seems that Edward was a fast learner and was thinking of how to make the most out of every opportunity.
"What was that all about?" Victoria looked to her husband as she watched her grandson rush from the room.
Richard looked at Edward's departing back, at least he knew how to get a handle on getting his homework done, he had a whole extra day and he had no clue what to do. "Other than going to the mall or Oxford Street like we planned what else should we do the whole weekend, I'm not very good at planning things," Richard sounded very unhappy at being event planner and not knowing what to do.
Aaron looked thoughtful, "Well, the first thing I probably should tell you, so you can properly plan things to do is that Tommy and Brian will not be joining us until Saturday, they are both undergoing breakthrough, so for the next two days, they won't be around."
Richard giggled, "That must be nice for your bank account, the way Tommy likes to spend your money."
Aaron looked thoughtful before slowly nodding his head in agreement, "Maybe you're right I guess you should plan all the shopping for tomorrow, then," before breaking out in laughter along with Andrew.
"All laughing aside, none of the Clan has to ever worry about money, as you well know, and I have never once even blinked at what any of them bought, most of the time it is so hard to get any of them to buy things for themselves instead of the kingdom." Aaron looked at Richard, "Think about each of them, and think about what they like, when you plan your weekend."
"Well besides buying orchids, as a hobby, Tommy likes anything to do with farming and fish farming, so if I planned a trip to.but what about the others, beside Mark and Brian and maybe Fred, the others would not find it fun to visit places like that?" Richard was stumped; he thought he had a good start too.
Victoria smiled at her grandson, "And who said you all have to do the same things, would it not be easier to pick several things and split the group up for some things and then meet up later on?"
Richard jumped up and looked at his grandmother, "If you will excuse me, I have homework that needs to be done and some people to talk to."
As Richard ran out of the room, Andrew started to look a little ill, seeing that, Aaron smiled and reached across the table to tap his hand to get his attention, "Relax Andrew, you're not about to get some nasty homework that you can't handle; what I want you to do is to go talk with as many ambassadors as you can, start with the ones that look to the crown for guidance, I want you to see if you can come to an understanding of what they say their jobs are, with what you observe them actually doing. Just a general outline for now, and you do have until next Friday before I'll ask you how you are doing."
Andrew looked thoughtful as he stood up, that seemed simple enough, like a report on government, he wondered if his Grandmother's aide would have an idea of where to start, "is Crystal in her office, Grandmother?" seeing her nod her head, Andrew started to walk out, "Excuse me please, I have to talk with someone who can point me in the right direction of who to talk to."
James looked at Aaron, who was smiling, and wondered about what he was thinking, "I must apologize for my boys being so rude and leaving like that."
Laughing, Aaron interrupted James, "They've been infected with Clan Stranton single mindedness." Looking to the adults present, he glanced at the clock, "I need to get a move on anyway, but to dispel some of your confusion, Edward skipped ahead in his lessons and took something I said the other day to heart and is thinking of cause and effect; I think he plans to see if he can use the buildings that would have gone to the scrap heap as enticements for farmers growing things to our standards, so we will spend more money here in Great Britain."
"That explains Edward, but what about Richard; surely you don't plan to make him into a social secretary, though Andrew as a diplomat would be possible," James speculated.
"Kevin I'll be ready to come home in a few minutes, I'm just finishing up." Aaron pathed Kevin as promised and got a return of "I'll be ready; just let me know," along with relief.
"Richard needs to be brought out of his shell he constructed as a safety measure to keep him safe from his parents, so for the time being, I am going to give him tasks designed to bring him out of that self imposed exile. He has no clue on how to function with other people, other than his cousins, and now my Clan, so each little success of being the originator of social events will help break down that wall he built around himself. He does very well in a closed group setting where he feels safe." Aaron explained before grinning, "And Andrew went one step further from his placement tests, he started to explore job opportunities and one of the things he was looking into was diplomacy, so I am giving him a taste of what's involved. Edward, right now, is the only one who is being singled out for intensive leadership training, the others will absorb it through association with the members of the Clan and Edward; I see my job right now, as helping them to find themselves. As I do with each of my Clan, once they know who and what they are, they usually know what they want out of life and I steer them in that direction, so Andrew might find out he hates the thought of all the lies and holding his tongue and a diplomat is not the life he wants."
Standing, Aaron moved away from the table, "Victoria, I'll see you tomorrow in my official capacity around eight, which will give us some time to plan our attack before getting to the House of Lords." Aaron said his goodbye's while sending a visualization of where he was to Kevin and smiled as the light show started, and he found himself a half blink later in his office.
"Hello love," Aaron smiled, as he went over and kissed Kevin deeply, "only one more small chore of getting Tommy and Brian into the bio-tubes, then I will head off to my bedroom, where you can take turns pampering me like you all planned, but only for today," he ended it as a playful warning.
Kevin smiled, "I think Pete is already waiting in your bed, he wants to know how his device worked. Tommy and Brian I think are out in the Clan Hall, looking over the maps of topside for the best place to make room for a greenhouse out by the sea farm." laughing, Aaron led the way to the stairs leading down to the entry, and entering the Hall, he found most of the Clan milling around near the corner.
"Where did that new door come from?" Kevin asked, as he walked over to the group with Aaron, who was suspiciously grinning.
Damien and Kenny walked out of the door looking confused, "It's a med bay or at least a small one," Kenny noticed Aaron and went running over, "why do we have our own med bay?"
Picking Kenny up and twirling him in a circle to burn off Kenny's momentum while laughing, "I guess I decided we needed our own med bay, with all the new people we hope to bring in, and using one of the trauma pods for altering people is not the best, so therefore, our own private Clan med bay."
Looking around, "Now, where are Tommy and Brian," Aaron asked, as the two in question came running back, holding their P.A.D.D.'s, "Okay you two, let's get started," he told them as he entered the med bay and brought two of the bio-tubes online.
Removing the Velcro pouch and placing it on the tray, Tommy pulled off his ear communicator and laid it on top, before climbing into the bio-tube, the first thing he noticed was this one was slightly different than the one he woke up in before.
Aaron leaned over Tommy and kissed him long and hard, long enough to wake his body up and arouse him, grinning at the predicament; Aaron picked up the sensor and started to prep Tommy. Once finished, and after turning on the soma unit, he moved to Brian and repeated the process. Once done, he looked around the gathered Clan, "if you want to give them a kiss goodnight, now's the time, after that, I need to insert the tubes and you might not want to watch."
While installing the fecal tubes to both teens, it gave the clan enough time to kiss their lovers, and five minutes later, Aaron quickly intubated and finished the prep work before sealing the bio-tubes and activating the cycle.
Placing a hand on each bio-tube one last time before he walked out, Aaron felt Kevin place a hand on his shoulder, "Come on Aaron, time to get out of those clothes and relax in bed, I think I'm going to massage your back while you talk to Pete."
Stripping out of his shirt as he walked into the entry, Aaron Followed Kevin up the stairs eager for fulfillment of the promise of a massage. Spotting Pete on the bed, Aaron waved at him before walking into the closet, kicking off his shoes and taking a minute to fully undress before placing his P.A.D.D. in its Velcro pouch, grabbing his scanner and doing the same for it placing it in the smaller pouch, taking them to the bed he set them down on the night table before handing Pete the device for the light show and lying down between Pete's spread knees facing him, while Kevin climbed behind him and started to kneed his tight muscles around his neck.
"Don't keep me in suspense," Pete mock growled, before grinning and waving his flaccid penis at him, "or no nookie for you tonight."
Laughing, Aaron waved the finger at him as he was just starting to relax, "Like the other nine would deny me, PFFFTTTT. Actually, the first time we ported in, we startled a maid, as they were not in the formal dining room, when I ported out though, I think they were impressed, I would say ask the princes, but they had already left to do their homework. Thomas was there, so you can ask him, but he is not on the list of those knowing, how did your redesign go?"
Pete smiled as Kevin rolled his eyes at the back of Aaron's head.
"Rolling your eyes at me won't help, you know, I only promised to stay in bed for the rest of the day, not that I wouldn't do any work, I just promised to only do things I could do while in bed, and that feels great, by the way." Aaron purred the last as Kevin moved down to his shoulders.
"By using a belt, I came up with a design that would have the micro wire embedded in the belt itself meaning that no measuring will be involved, the design is locked in and only needs to have you DNA unlock the production run." Pete hinted as he watched Kevin work.
"I'll do that shortly, how did the test run of the sub fighter you designed work out?" Aaron asked, as he felt Kevin's hands move down to his lower back.
"Test run?" Pete whispered, confused, "what test run?"
Lifting his head slightly so he could look at Pete's face, Aaron stared at Pete and his dumbfounded look, "You designed the thing, so you know what it will do, are you telling me you did not grab Chris or Joe and put it through its paces? The production line is at a halt, waiting for you to tell me it works as is, or needs some adjustment."
Pete got a distant look on his face before jumping up and running out of the room, yelling out as he hit the door, "I'll be back." the rest could not be heard as he had hit the steps running and once out of sight, ported out.
Kevin laughed as he moved down to Aaron's left leg and started working on his thigh, "That was mean, funny as hell, but mean none the less."
"I know, and how about your morning so far?" Aaron chuckled, as Kevin started his other leg.
"I finished the log in check list, for the new people, we all sat down after you left this morning and came up with ideas, and the ones we agreed on, I implemented, I also found time to implement some new filters to the system, now email messages that hit your in box are those that have been screened or directed to you in the first place, I think, after checking there are about forty that came in overnight which is more tolerable. Once everyone gets used to the new system, I expect you will get less emails but more content, as things like new hires and such are loaded into the data base as if they are hired automatically, and then they can later be relabeled to 'hired' or 'not hired'... even 'don't hire', I linked the files to DNA scans of the applicants, so even if they try to apply under a different name or face, their DNA will sort them out," Kevin finished the other leg and tapped his side, "Turn over."
Kenny came walking into the room, climbed up on the bed and looked down at Aaron, worried as Kevin started at the bottom, this time planning on working his way up, leaning over and breathing real softly to look real close, he almost squealed when Aaron lifted his head and kissed him, eyes still closed, "Why so worried, love?"
Kenny sat back, still looking at Aaron, "Are you sure you're okay," he sounded worried.
"I'll be fine, why so worried, Kenny," Aaron opened his eyes and glanced over his head.
Not giggling or acting goofy, Kenny pointed at Aaron's crotch, "Your in bed, we're all naked and Kevin is running his hands up and down your body, and you're not hard."
Slightly shocked, Aaron motioned him closer, "Watch what Kevin is doing; it's called a massage, it is not meant to get you hard; it is meant to work the tension out of your muscles, and when he works a knot out, at first it hurts, then feels relaxing, here, lie down next to me and let Kevin work on your neck for a minute, so you can tell the difference."
"Ow.oh...okay, that's better," Kenny said, and after a few minutes, Kevin stopped.
When Aaron felt the hands go back to working his chest muscles, "Turn over now," glancing down at Kenny's crotch, "see, you're not hard either." Turning back as Mark walked in, he finished, "remember, not everything we do or can do with and to one another, has to be sex."
Fidgeting, Kenny looked around the room and at Aaron finally, "Um.is Richard ever coming back?"
Here it comes, thought Aaron, hiding the smile, "Starting this weekend all three will start spending Friday through Sunday night with us."
Kenny perked up at hearing this, "Did you know that Richard is only slightly longer than Damien is.Damien told me he and Richard went all the way and you told him he could." Kenny kept his eyes on Aaron, "And Damien is only two inches taller than me."
Eyes still closed, as Kevin snickered very softly while he worked Aaron's neck, Aaron hummed his agreement, "Yes, I knew that Damien brought Richard here last night to ask, in fact Damien and Richard went all the way, right there where you're lying now."
Kenny looked down at the bed where he was lying and was instantly hard, thinking about what had happened in that spot, "Um.Damien said it didn't hurt at all," he fidgeted.
Kevin, who had finished and received his prize of a kiss, lay down next to Aaron, half on half off his body, "Kenny, ask already.jeez."
Kenny still fidgeted, looking for support from Aaron or anyone and sighed as Mark walked in and settled on the bed behind him, scooting back into Mark's body, Kenny finally got up the courage, "Damien said you lifted the ban for him after finding out Richard was only three quarters of an inch longer than him.what about me, he's about the same maybe almost an inch longer.I measured."
"Tell me Kenny, what's the most you have done with someone else?" Aaron looked at him and smiled, seeing Mark's arms around him, giving him comfort.
Kenny wanted to scream, then cry why was Aaron making this so hard, he wondered, "Damien and I have done everything you guys do, and I like it a lot."
Aaron hid his smile, by looking at Kevin, knowingly, "I'm not trying to make this hard on you, Kenny, but you still have not really told me what you want, you've just repeated things I already knew that Damien did."
Leaning back suddenly, Kenny's head hit Marks chest with a thump and he looked up to see Mark nod at him, "I want to go all the way with Richard, no one else will, they say they're two big and I'm too small still."
Aaron turned his head so Kenny could see his face, "Finally, you're asking something that I can answer to," he smiled. "The reason none of the other guys, even Fred, who is the same length as Richard won't go all the way with you, is because your insides are still so small."
Kenny screwed up his eyes as he thought back to the times he had seen Fred hard, "Well, Fred is the same as Richard." his mind placed the two side by side and his eyes opened in understanding, "except Fred is a lot bigger around than Richard."
"That's right, he could hurt you, because he is a lot thicker than Richard, so, for Richard alone, the answer is yes, if he agrees to it, and if he says no, ask him to talk to me about it but don't bug him," Aaron ordered, As Kenny jumped up in glee, causing Mark to cover his crotch for safety, before bouncing off the bed.
"Promise.I promise," Kenny's voice called back as he was already halfway across the common room, very happy and wanting to share the news with Damien as soon as possible.
David walked in, looking over his shoulder at his brother, running up the steps, "Well he is very happy for some reason."
Mark laughed and patted the bed in front of him for David to sit down, "He finally got permission to do what he wanted with Richard, after telling us all about what Damien did with Richard, he finally came out and asked."
Sitting down in front of Mark, and lying back, so his head was in Mark's lap, David wiggled his head a moment to make him more comfortable and arouse Mark slightly, then grinned, "Good, now he will finally feel as if he belongs to the Clan."
"What do you mean by that," Aaron speared David with his stare, all but demanding an answer.
Shrugging as best he could, lying down, because it would cause him to wiggle in Marks crotch, "In his mind, he does not belong to the Clan unless he can go all the way with someone who can put sperms inside him, he knows that is not true, up here." David tapped his head before a sad smile crossed his face, "but in here." he tapped his chest by his heart, "he dreams of the day he can truly belong."
Aaron considered that for a moment, "When you see Richard, take him aside some place private and tell him that, try to do it before Kenny has time to ask him, it just might make the difference in Richard's answer, tell him he can talk to me about it before saying anything to Kenny." Aaron broke into a chuckle as he saw something poke up from the back of David's hair, seems he was successful he thought. "How are things up top with the farm and how are you doing, Mark?"
"Pretty good actually, the farms are running smoothly and everything is ready for tomorrow, the chicks in the hatching room are about ready to pip and break out of their shell which will be a big help in setting up our breeding stock. I've been trying to get a handle on the artificial wombs, they are easier than I thought, but still I'll have a lot of hard work to accomplish before next April when they are due to be decanted, actually, I was going to ask you to go over the accelerated study plan the tutor came up with to see if it is accurate, if so, I need to find a lab to do the course work in."
"There's a lab between the hatching room and the womb room, you can use that one, and if one of you will hand me my terminal, I'll log in and check out what the tutor came up with and check it against your placement tests to compare," Aaron stretched a hand out behind him and grabbed a couple of pillows to prop Kevin and himself up with.
"I'll get it," Fred volunteered, as he came into the bedroom, grabbing it, he climbed on the bed and snuggled between Aaron and Mark, "How come your terminal touchpad is wireless and ours are built into the desks?"
"Back when I was mastering my gifts, I unwisely decided not to use the limiter, afraid that if something went wrong, I would not be able to get the dam thing off, let's just say I spent a lot of time in this bed recuperating from mishaps that you guys don't have to go through. Plus, after understanding the technology better, I programmed in a failsafe that will inactivate the limiters if the system Core ever goes offline except for scheduled maintenance." Aaron told him, as he logged on and brought up the placement results and course outline that Mark was questioning.
"Do you think we should make placement testing along with learning the racial secrets something all new Alteran's have to do," Fred brought the subject up, "I know when I watched it yesterday, it chilled me to learn that we are the result of a do over, your future self must have been an incredible person, Aaron."
Friedrich who had followed some of the others after hearing that Aaron was back, he wanted to check in with him and tell him that he put in place policies so that security would not fall through the cracks like that again, he had stopped outside Aaron's bedroom near the bottom of the steps and listened in. Turning around and leaving to go back to his apartment to search out and watch the racial secret that Fred was talking about before Aaron mentioned his gift.
"He must have been incredible, and so lonely I think," Aaron said, as he read through the test results, "I would have liked to get to know him better, but he had already faded by the time I was released from the bio-tube, he left one other private message for me and watching it, I saw him fade from reality." Aaron looked up at the ceiling before shaking off the depressed feelings and smiling, "There is no chance of that reality ever happening now, one of the things the other timeline speculated about was when the shift occurred, the possibility it would spawn talents that had only been thought up in fiction, they theorized if those gifts actually presented themselves in the new population, that the timeline would have been steered so far off course, that there was no chance of things happening like they had, but my future self warned me not to be complacent as things could go in a different and much more dangerous direction if we were not careful."
"Sorry Mark, I see no shortcuts here, you need to bring up your math skills a bit, before you can start, but I will say your natural science scores are very high, I would think if you can get a handle on Algebra, you should be fine," Aaron told him as he closed the search window and reached over Kevin to lay the terminal touchpad on the night table.
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Mark sighed in frustration, "I hate algebra."
"Was it the Algebra or the teacher that gave you problems?" Aaron asked, thinking who would be best to tutor him.
"The teacher was a total flop, refusing to help us if we fell behind, unless we were on a sports team. He refused to help out any person who would not join sports, he kept wanting me to go out for football," Mark growled.
"Ask Chris for help, he went through all that advanced mathematics at Kenny's age, he will be the best one to give you the help you need, and he will listen to you and work with you to find out where you are having problems," Aaron looked over and up at him before wiggling free of Kevin and Fred, "Keep my place warm, I have to pee, and on the way back, I'll do that unlock for Pete, be right back."
Friedrich sat staring at the blank monitor after watching the presentation, so much answered and on the other hand, so much had changed in the fifteen minutes it took to watch through the whole thing, looking at the security situation now, after seeing this, he thought as he stood up, yes, everything had changed and so much would need to be drastically altered.
"So you're all set for the arrival of the cattle and the chicks you ordered, I forgot to mention to Richard that you would not be there in the morning, so I hope he doesn't think you are supposed to be there, what time do you think you'll be joining us after finishing up, so I can let Richard know, maybe I should contact him and tell him not to plan anything for the morning, I totally forgot about the livestock shipment," Aaron reached over for the terminal touchpad.
Mark placed a hand on Aaron's chest and tapped it, "Don't bother, the chicks, which take the longest are going to be delivered to the Altair farms, Brian's dad has a few volunteers to help out. The cattle will not take any time at all as they are not going to be delivered, they are going to be ported in around six, Kevin will help me with the job and Pete and Tim will port the chicks over to the Altair farm after we double check the quarantine scans, so I'll be free to go with you at seven when everyone leaves."
Handing the touchpad to Mark, "Call the quarantine office now and see how far along they are with the process, if they can get things done early, or at least the cattle, we can port them over after supper and save some time in the morning. I only had them stay ten days at that facility as a precaution, but after you upgraded it to handle processing them for parasites and diseases over there, there is no reason to wait, really," Aaron smiled before looking to Fred.
"Now that I have thought about it, Fred, I am not sure about the placement tests, I think we should encourage it, but I don't think making it mandatory is the way to go for those already out of school, most of them now have jobs instead of school, and a limited amount of time." Aaron looked at Fred to see if he was upset about his idea being shot down, "And for the racial secret, I would think most people would have followed through, or at least I hope so, they are told when they leave the med bay that it is open to them now, and it will answer most of their questions."
"You know now that I think on it, I've not had a single person ask me anything about what was presented to them, except members of the Clan, wonder why?" Aaron pondered before being interrupted.
"I can answer that, your majesty," Friedrich's voice sounded in the room, but Aaron kept looking for the person the voice belonged to and could not see anyone. "The truth is, maybe one or two people followed through, the rest just jumped into work and did not give it a thought, I know I didn't, until I overheard your conversation earlier as I was coming down the stairs to give you an update, since you were busy, I headed back to my room to watch it."
Still looking around, Aaron looked at Mark who was stretching to look down over the edge of the bed and pulling himself up into a sitting position Aaron looked over the edge of the bed to see a head.Friedrich was kneeling and talking to the floor, "What the hell are you doing down there?"
"I'm sorry your majesty, for barging in like this," Friedrich told the bed.
"Stand the hell up, so I can see you, Friedrich, what the hell is going on to have you acting like this, I'm not some Arabian king where no one may look at me," Aaron growled out, "STAND, DO NOT KNEEL BEFORE ME UNLESS YOU ARE BEING JUDGED."
Aaron's yelling, brought the rest of the Clan that was in the common room or other bedrooms running, as they entered the room, Friedrich felt more than little intimidated.
Now that he was standing, Aaron sat back against the wall and in a gentle voice, "Friedrich, I am the same person I was this morning, and the other day, or even the day I interviewed you and hired you, why are you acting like.like.some worshipper or something," he finally got out.
"I watched the racial secrets, the history of the Alteran's and it changes things," Friedrich stumbled in explaining, "I have been treating this as if I was only guarding royalty, and the consequences while severe if I failed, were not world shattering.well they are world shattering, and I think that is the problem you are having with all the new people, they have not watched what I just did; they have no clue what happened or will happen if we fail.it changes a person."
Aaron looked over at Fred and raised an eyebrow questioning, "Did you watch it because I mentioned it to you?"
"Tim dragged me over last night when I was not doing anything, we sat down and watched it together," Fred explained, as Aaron looked at him and nodded.
Looking at Mark, Aaron did not have to ask as he answered, "Tim" and looking over at David who was sitting up on one elbow, "Tim."
Tim who walked in after hearing his name several times looked at Aaron, "What.something like that is too important to leave to chance that they will watch it," pointing to the monitor, "that is our family history and we, more than anyone should know it," Tim put a lot of passion into his words, "we are the guardians of the human race and they need to know why."
Aaron opened his arms and pathed, "Come here love, you are right in more ways than one." Kissing Tim after he crawled up the bed, Aaron smiled at the rest of his lovers as they joined them on top of the bed, the only ones not present were those in the bio-tubes or Pete and the one's barred from having sex with them for being too young. "It's hard to remember at times, that it has only been almost three weeks, but you are right this is too important to leave to chance and if Friedrich is right, which he probably is, we need to change things so that every person is sat down and watches that during their first lesson on mastering their gifts."
Curious, Aaron looked around the bed, "Did my future self really call us the guardians of the human race?" he was starting to feel a little frisky, so dropped his hands to Tim's crotch while waiting.
A lot of nods answered him as Fred crawled over to Mark's crotch and eyed the hard cock, "Yes he did, and I think that I will designate myself as your feeder, I'll bring you all of our offerings.minus the taste for myself," he said out loud, as he descended on the cock inches from his mouth.
Friedrich, seeing that it was about to become private, made his exit, he after all had some people to round up and sit down, so they could watch what he had just watched and he wanted to make sure that those who guarded the guardians knew why, other than just a paycheck.
Editors section:
RadioRanchers Musings: Well, that certainly made some people sit up and think, didn't it?
It looks like Kenny has his sights set on Richard and all the wonderful things they can do together.
Edward is going to make a very good leader.
It is going to be very interesting to see what happens when Aaron visits Parliament.
I can hardly wait for the next chapter to find out.
Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher
A/N : I'm off posting schedule again, this time it is not my fault as several emails to nifty have been lost to cyberspace causing me to check up and resend several days later.
I have an email list if you wish to receive the chapter early, fair warning they have pictures embedded in them of the tech toys I describe.though not all chapters have pictures. I am willing to send the chapters out in word doc format or PDF
Enjoy